Have you Talked to Your Parents About Their Planning?

We all know the population is growing older. For children with elderly parents, concerns include taking care of their parents when they no longer can take care of themselves and estate issues upon their parents’ deaths. There are holes in the planning if these issues are not addressed. An obvious problem is that children often do not feel comfortable discussing incapacity, death and finances with their parents. If the parents don’t bring up these issues, they may not be adequately addressed.

For example, what if parents are living, but no longer able to make decisions for themselves? It is necessary to have a Revocable Trust, or at the least, a Power of Attorney, to handle the financial issues. It is also critical to have a Health Care Power of Attorney and a Living Will (if so desired) for health issues. These health documents are sometimes combined in a single document, depending on state law.

Upon death, what is going to happen with the assets? Children should at least be asking their parents:

• Have you prepared and updated a list of assets so we know what you have and where we can find them?
• Do you have a Will or Will and Revocable Living Trust that provides an orderly disposition of the assets?
• Have you minimized estate taxes and transfer costs by employing the appropriate estate planning strategies?
• Who have you put in charge? Are you relying on one or more family members to serve as your agents, executors and trustees? Or, do you need an institutional fiduciary to ensure matters are properly handled?

These are difficult and sensitive subjects to discuss with parents. The issues can be further complicated when children don’t get along or if there are children from different marriages. Notwithstanding, these subjects cannot be ignored or administration costs and taxes could unnecessarily deplete assets, not to mention cause great hardship.